NASA’s Juno spacecraft makes first close flyby of Jupiter

Juno, a NASA spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter, made record-breakingly close contact with the giant planet for the first time.

At approximately 5:51 am PDT (8:51 am EDT, 12:51 UTC) on Saturday, Juno got within 2,600 miles (4,200 km) of the gas planet’s clouds, whizzing by at a speed of 130,000 miles per hour (208,000 km/h). This marks the first of 35 such orbits that Juno will make throughout its mission, which is expected to run until February of 2018.

“This is the first time we will be close to Jupiter since we entered orbit on July 4,” said Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator.

All of Juno’s eight science instruments were turned on for the monumental orbit and initial data is expected to make its way to Earth within days, although “interpretation and first results are not expected for some time.”